Metroid: Zebeth
by TheOnePotatoToRuleThemAll
Summary: Wounded after crash landing on one of the surviving moons of Zebes, Samus Aran will have to fight to survive on a hostile desert moon. To escape, she will have to endure the most dangerous threat the universe has ever known, solve the mystery of the ancient ruins buried by the dunes, and discover the sinister truth behind the Chozo disappearance. M for mild setting based horror.
1. Chapter 1

Samus Aran, The Savior of the Universe and greatest bounty hunter ever, had just taken her most mundane job ever. Bodyguard for a bunch of snooty British sounding museum curators and history buffs on a trip to one of the moons of Zebes that survived the blast.

The uncreatively named Zebes Moon 02, or ZM02 for short, is a small, inhabitable and highly hostile moon with a similar gravity to earth, and the entire surface covered in one big desert. With a temperature range of 120 Fahrenheit in the day and -20 at night and absolutely no water whatsoever, it was no wonder that nobody even bothered to set foot on the moon. Planetary scans showed no valuable resources and a slightly acidic yet still breathable atmosphere if you didn't mind neverending coughing and sore throats. ZM02 was literally a useless ball of sand that even the craziest of people would refuse to visit. Upon its discovery, it was slapped with a basic label and was promptly ignored by virtually everyone.

So when ZM02 been scanned by the Hubble Telescope Mk. XVI and a crater formed from debris from Zebes coincidentally unearthed some hidden ruins on the arid desert moon, scientists and historians alike were immensely fascinated. Naturally, this led to the curators of the Historical Society of Ancient and Lost Civilizations to plan an expedition to the dangerous moon. Faced with multiple unknowns, the museum's board of directors decided to hire some extra protection. And when dealing with the Zebes system, there was no better guard to hire than Samus Aran.

After years of fighting space pirates and saving the universe many times over, she had officially hit rock bottom.

At least that's what she told herself. In reality, she was getting a lot of money for it, but she wanted the thrill of action more than money. For all intents and purposes, she was loaded. After rooting out the corruption in the inner circle of the Federation, she had been rewarded handsomely by Fleet Admiral Dane, but with the lack of evil scheming, most of the violence in the universe seemed to have stopped. Go figure.

But in doing so, she broke A LOT of laws. And the extent of her criminal activities could not be ignored by the Galactic Council. In order to secure her pardon, she had to agree to go into retirement unless the Federation needed her, and as much as she HATED taking orders, she hated the idea of spending the rest of her life in prison due to HUNDREDS of charges of espionage, smuggling, arson (which if asked, she will swear to the day she dies was an accident), trespassing, impersonating a public official, and high treason.

Nowadays she had reluctantly enjoyed a forced semi-retirement, doing the occasional bodyguard job for some high ranking officials, or occasionally running a training drill or two for the Federation's Soldiers. But not once had she taken a job that basically boiled down to shooting any hostile wildlife at a dig site.

The greatest Bounty Hunter in the universe was now a glorified critter cop.

So why this particular job? Samus had asked herself the same question multiple times, and every time she came up with the same conclusion. She was not sure. Part of her thought it was because of the Baby Metroid, and her regret from not being able to save the creature. Part of it may have been because she missed her adopted homeworld, and the trip to one of its moons would be a good escape for a bit.

More than likely, it was because she hoped SOMETHING would happen on the trip.

When that thought happened to cross her mind, she immediately pushed it out of her head. After all, why would anyone ever wish for something bad to happen on a mission?

So, here she was. In the cargo bay of the space freighter, fiddling with her zero suits armor digitizer. Ever since the events on the BSL and the X parasites invading her armor, she had been trying to undo the drastic changes to her power suit. Sure, the ability to absorb the X was amazing, but considering the X exploded on BSL, it was kind of moot point. Plus... she missed her old suit. After all, it was the only thing she had left of her home. For as tough as her childhood was, she missed Old Bird. Try as she might, she couldn't find a trace of him after her return to Zebes as a Federation Police Officer.

Regardless of her other reasoning, she still knew one thing was for sure. There were unsolved questions she needed answers to, and she hoped that a good old fashioned Metroid related mission would help solve the question that plagued her mind.

Looking away from the emblem on the back of her hand, she tossed the small fusion cutter she held back into a nearby toolbox and walked away with a sigh. As it looked now, she would need an expert surgeon, an electrician, and a quantum physicist to repair the damage on the hand emblem, not to mention the extensive modifications she had observed the chest and back of the suit. She had done all she could, and ZM02 was hours away at this point. Walking to a nearby cot, she decided it was time for a nap. From a nearby chair, she grabbed her old brown leather jacket from her days as a federation police officer and threw it over herself like a blanket as she laid down, closing her eyes as sleep slowly claimed her.

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 **Expect infrequent updates. I am taking liberties with what is and isn't canon. Parts of Other M may be, but some aren't. For the most part, the manga, Zero Mission, Samus Returns, Super, and Fusion are canon. Other M and Prime are selective. Mainly because I haven't played Prime, and Other M is the Alien 3 of the series. For example, Samus's Jacket in the Other M flashbacks. And if I add tools from other franchise, like the Fusion Cutter, it will not be important down the line and just a one-off thing. Yeet.**


	2. Chapter 2

Samus' eyes shot open as she was thrown out of her cot, startled as the ship lurched forward and tilted to one side. The onboard collision alarm began to blast over the PA system in a loud, almost screeching monotone. She jumped to her feet, threw on her jacket, and ran to the nearby viewport before her breath was taken away in fear. A cold sweat ran down the side of her face as chills ran down her spine. She stared out in horror as two large crimson beams protruded out of the slightly orange tinted clouds, piercing the left engine and control bridge. Thats when she noticed the right engine was kicked into full throttle. She swore in anger as her famous bad luck had just kicked in again. With one engine down, the ship would be sent into a direct collision course with the surface!

Instinctually, she activated her power armor as she made her way to the closest door, only to find it jammed shut. She looked to the other door and found it blocked by an excavator that had slid across the floor. She swore internally before letting her military training kick in.

Broad Situational Assessment: Single engine failure and control bridge destroyed. The ship was falling out of orbit and into the surface at an intense pace. Hard shots to make from the surface for the current altitude. This was a sophisticated attack using some form of Superlaser. And since Superlasers were heavily outlawed after a few fiascos involving a crazy old emperor and a rebellion in a galaxy nearby, she had no doubts that only the Space Pirates would be bold enough to commit an attack like this.

Equipment check: Zero Suit, Gravity Suit, Standard Issue Paralyzer Pistol, Federation Police Force Jacket. As a result of all the space pirate attacks, all civilian Freighter class ships and higher had EMF blocking technology installed to deactivate all firepower brought on board, so blasting her way out was out of the question, this time. The Gunship was currently parked at the museum's hangar bay in New London. No contact with Adam. No help from The Federation.

Narrow Situational Assessment: Trapped in Cargo Bay. No way out. Surrounded by large equipment and cargo, sliding around. Cargo had to be loaded onboard somehow. There!

She spotted it. There was a large cargo door on the far wall opposite of her cot, that looked to be the type that folded down into a ramp. Quickly, she made a plan.

The timing would have to be perfect, or more than likely she would die. She just had to hope that her armor would absorb most of the damage, but would not be destroyed enough so it would be worthless in her escape from the moon. Samus knew that not all of the damage on impact was going to be absorbed by her Shinespark and her armor, and expected to walk out of this with a few broken bones. This was going to hurt a lot. Jumping forward, she launched herself over a crate that came sliding by, kicked off the edge of a backhoe in front of it, then took off into a sprint toward the cargo door. She had barely made it, slamming into the wall to narrowly avoid a box of mining equipment, and braced herself for the turbulence of atmospheric reentry.

It startled her when the ships onboard AI spoke up in the voice of a dull, uninterested teenage girl. "Current altitude is nine kilometers and falling. Recommended action: increase altitude, or something."

She chuckled humorlessly at the out of place sounding AI. At least it would be helpful to gauge her exit timing. Another piece of large machinery slid by, leaving the only crates and machinery that were not piled onto the left wall is what was securely strapped down... for now. She doubted they would stay that way forever, as the angle of the ship was still slightly increasing.

"Current altitude is, like, five kilometers and falling. Crashing is imminent. Raise altitude, like, now." The angsty voice AI didn't seem all that bothered, considering the ship was going down. Samus took a deep breath to calm her nerves. The worst part was yet to come.

She waited, full of tension as the alarm still blared before she heard her cue. "Current altitude is one kilometer and falling. Prepare for impact, I guess." Her hand slammed down on the button to lower the door, and she turned to run, struggling to keep her footing on the slanted surface. She made it back to the other wall, sliding down to grab her jacket before scrambling back up to her feet. A loud SNAP rang out as the rest of the cargo fell free of its support netting, making a conveniently placed runway for her to sprint down. She tumbled over to the crates and stood on the shaky surface ready to make a mad dash for the exit.

"Current altitude is five hundred meters. Billing for this rental freighter is now being charged to Acting Captain 'Samus Aran'" Her eyes widened unexpectedly. If she, a hired hand, was ranked as Acting Captain, the rest of the crew must be dead. "The onboard AI will finally self-destruct in accordance with Galactic Naval Protocol 7952b.6 45535-a36-256…" She tuned out the long protocol name as she began to run until her visor flashed in a familiar way. Her speed boost was active and she was halfway to the door. Two-Thirds of the way. At the door. As she reached the edge of the ramp, she took a knee at the last second and threw her shoulder forward. Finally, she closed her eyes and launched forward.

She grit her teeth as she fell towards the surface, as the ship behind her began to explode on impact. The resulting shockwave spread out and lurched her forward as it kicked up the sand around her. The resulting sandstorm was certainly problematic because she didn't see the ground as she crashed into it, and promptly blacked out.

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 **Chapter 2. I'm better at writing comedy than action scenes, so if it sucked, feel free to give me some pointers. Hi** **Quietness731. Thanks for the review.** **Now I'm going to go get food. Thanks to Ten ways to spoil dinner for suggesting a few changes. I know I'm not the best writer in the world, but I do try to make my stories enjoyable. Cause thats what reading should be about.**


	3. Chapter 3

When Samus woke up face first on the ground, the first thing she did was remove her helmet with her left hand before immediately throwing up. Weakly, she attempted to push herself up, only to scream out in pain before falling face first into the sand once again. She rolled over avoiding her right arm and deactivated her armor, barely registering her discarded helmet deconstructing into her Zero Suit before she reluctantly looked at her right shoulder. She could tell through her jacket that the joint was completely out of place and the collarbone was more than likely broken. Gently, she applied a small amount of pressure to her side and quickly removed her hand. That pain in her side was probably a broken rib, as well. She managed to carefully sit up, before taking the collar of her leather jacket, folding it over on itself, and biting into it. Samus took a moment to pause and took a deep breath before grabbing her injured shoulder and falling forward to land on her elbow. With a loud yet quick POP and a blood-curdling scream, her arm was back in its socket once more. Something still felt wrong in the lower part of her tricep, but she could manage for now.

After a minute of rest, she struggled to her feet and began to limp over to a nearby sand dune to get a better view of her surroundings. It was a literal uphill battle against the almost liquid-like sand, not aided by her blurry vision and limp that caused her to fall over more than once. Finally, once she reached the top she was met with the sight of a dimming sky backdropping the still burning freighter surrounded by a large impact crater about a mile wide. She scanned the horizon thoroughly, looking for anything that could help her figure out a way off this rock. But the sun was setting, and darkness was beginning to creep in - meaning only one thing. It was going to get very cold, very fast. She still had Metroid DNA in her biology, meaning that if she remained in the cold desert at night, her immune system would weaken to the point it may have not had even existed in the first place, and her lungs would begin to slowly freeze - ultimately leaving her with a 100% guaranteed slow and painful death.

Samus had nearly discovered this first hand when her mission to root out The Conspirators brought her stopping a slave trade on the Pluto IV System, a star system of all arctic tundra planets.

Since that mission, Samus always held a highly secret fear of cold temperatures and took extra precautions on subzero worlds. So her first order of business would be to start a fire and keep warm. Since she was in no condition to make it down the slope, she looked at the insignia on the back of her hand and noticed it was different than the full Gravity Suit's insignia, indicating that she had been right. The fall had severely damaged her suit as well as herself. Moreover, Samus silently contemplated her situation, hoping that the Morphball upgrade had survived the impact. She activated the suit and began a diagnostic as soon as the HUD of her visor was on display. As it looked now, she was in luck! Despite being in her base Power Suit, her current armory consisted of her Morphball, Grapple Beam, Hi-Jump and regular missiles and bombs. However, she was currently at two surviving E-Tanks but with thirty-two overall health. It was not good, to say the least, but at least she was alive and her suit still had some working upgrades. Speaking of, Samus activated the transformation, and let herself roll down the side of the dune and into the crater. There, she would have to either find or make a fire to camp for the night. If she was lucky, the cold wouldn't kill her.

Normally, she enjoyed the speed of falling down a steep hill in her Morphball form, but as the temperature began to rapidly fall, her mind was starting to fog up and her overall speed was steadily decreasing. Samus had made it ten feet from the ship before she returned from her Morphball form and fell to her knees panting. Her joints began to ache, especially her shoulder, which had begun to radiate excoriating pain. In a fit of wheezing and coughing, she desperately gasped for air as her chest began to go numb. Crawling on hands and knees, she spotted a hole in the ship and began to head in is direction just as her eyeballs began to form frost. By some miracle, however, she did manage to get inside and was warmed up immediately from the heat radiating from something burning nearby. Still blinded, she used what amounted to subconscious primal instinct to find warmth. Just barely did she make her way over to it, fighting every time her body screamed at her to just give up and die until she could no longer move any farther. She finally curled up into a ball next to the fire and letting the darkness claim her. Her last conscious thoughts were hoping that the heat would last until morning

* * *

Her eyes opened at the crack of dawn, like usual. Whatever was on fire had been reduced to a pile of smoldering ash by now, and had done just enough to keep her warm enough to survive. She stood up and stretched her back, immediately regretting it when she cringed at the pain in her still aching chest. Samus scanned around the room she had crawled into and noticed a pristine white hat with a gold pin neatly positioned in the center, secured in a somehow unbroken glass display case. It was the hat of a Naval Captain. She was in the Captain's Quarters and if one thing was true about the Captain of a ship, it was that they had always had a stash of high proof two-decade aged whiskey and an antique rocks glass somewhere in their quarters. And considering how she was now Acting Captain, she decided she could really use a drink.

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 **So Biology was canceled cause the professor has the flu. So I decided to nut up and write the next chapter cause I'm a week ahead in two other classes. Hope you like it. Next chapter will be at least a week and a half away, more than likely. Lemme know what you think so far.**


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